When putting on a production of Carmen,   one thing that is essential to nail is the costumes. With a lead as bold and vibrant as the title character and with a voracious bullfighter obsessing over her, they need outfits that showcase their fiery personalities. With this production having flamenco dancers as a centerpiece, these costumes must also have space for the dancers to move. Costume designer Mattie Ullrich kept this all in mind when designing the gorgeous costumes of Carmen,   and we've been given a chance to see the origins of these designs. 

Mattie Ullrich has designed costumes for opera, theater, film, musicals, dance, and print.  Recent opera productions include the world premiere of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's JFK at Fort Worth Opera, Satyagraha at the Ekaterinburg State Opera and Ballet (Russia), Don Giovanni at the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, The Two Foscari for Theater an der Wien (Vienna, Austria) and Palau des Artes (Valencia, Spain), The Oresteia for Bard SummerScape Festival, Handel's Eliogabalo for Gotham Opera, Nabucco (with productions at the Washington National Opera, Opera de Montreal, Florida Grand Opera and Opera Philadelphia) and Mozart's Zaide for Wolf Trap Opera.

She has designed many new Off-Broadway plays, including The Starry Messenger with Mathew Broderick, The Pride directed by  Joe Mantello, Fault Lines directed by David Schwimmer, Things We Want directed by Ethan Hawke, and the popular one-woman show Bad Dates starring Julie White and directed by John Benjamin Hickey for Playwrights Horizons.

Film projects include Year of the Fish (Sundance), the multi-festival, award-winning short Sovereignty, and Shoplifting Chanel.

Learn more  at MattieUllrich.com